


Possessed

by IcyPheonix



Series: VRAINS AU [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Possession, Tags to be added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2019-10-13 03:33:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17480348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IcyPheonix/pseuds/IcyPheonix
Summary: Revolver frowned, he'd spent all that time searching for the Ignis and here it was right at his feet, having delivered itself right to him."Please," it said, looking up at him as it clutched the place where its arm used to be. "You have to save Playmaker."----After following a new lead Playmaker falls into the enemy hands.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> SO HERE IT IS! The sequel to Trapped is now here!
> 
> If it wasn't obvious, this is picks up at around the point of episode 68.

There were many things in the world that Revolver expected; waking up in the morning, dealing with Specter's antics, seeing the sun set over the ocean, another duel with Playmaker, just to name a few. But what he saw that day when he logged into Link VRAINS was, by far, not something he ever expected.

"What are you doing here?"

On the ground in front of him lay Playmaker's Ignis, the Dark Ignis. By the looks of things it had been through a serious fight, its left arm was entirely missing and it was covered head to tiny foot in areas of missing pixels.

Revolver frowned, he'd spent all that time searching for the Ignis and here it was right at his feet, having delivered itself right to him.

"Please," it said, looking up at him as it clutched the place where its arm used to be. "You have to save Playmaker."

 

_48 Hours earlier..._

 

"Takeru, why is he hovering around us like this?" asked Yusaku, "And why is is he watching the two of you so intently?"

Aoi buried her face in her hands, muttering something that sounded vaguely like 'please kill me now' and Takeru sighed and tried to hide behind his lunch.

"What did you two do while I was in the hospital?"

While recovering in the hospital from SOL Technology's attack on him, Yusaku had learned from Takeru about Aoi's discovery of his secret identity and their subsequent team up inside of Link VRAINS. Which also meant that Takeru and Aoi had been spending time together outside of Link VRAINS.

"We didn't do anything," said Takeru. "I mean, aside from actually talking to each other. But for some reason Shima..." he trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck. "He thinks we're, you know, a thing."

Yusaku cocked and eyebrow and looked between the two of them. "How on earth did he draw that conclusion? Because you, talked to each other?"

"I suppose so? I don't know. But it makes talking about anything really hard." He gave Yusaku a sympathetic look. "This is why I told you to leave your duel disk at home."

Yusaku nodded, that made sense, Ai would surely give himself away. At least he had Flame to talk to this time so he wouldn't be alone OR unsupervised.

"So how do we make him go away?"

"Usually we just ignore him, and hope he leaves on his own," said Aoi, lifting her head slightly. "Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. I just hope my brother never finds out or I'll never hear the end of it."

"What about me? If your brother thinks we're dating he'll kill me," said Takeru, pointing at himself.

"Well the solution to that is simple," said Yusaku. "Don't go over to her place. Then you won't run into him."

Aoi sighed and placed her hands on the table before turning suddenly to look in Naoki's direction. "Shima! We know that you're watching us!"

There was a muffled yelp before he darted off.

"There, that should buy us a little while, I hope." She looked over at Yusaku, "So, what were you trying to tell us before _that_ happened?"

"Ai and I found another Ignis, the Earth Ignis."

Takeru straightened up, "Really, you did? Are they on our side or..."

Yusaku shook his head, "He seemed to be undecided. He could go either way, but he was searching for the Water Ignis, Aqua."

"So that just leaves two more Ignis then, the Light Ignis and the Water Ignis, right?" asked Aoi.

Yusaku nodded, "And we still don't know where they stand. Though with how Earth talked, I suspect Aqua would be on our side."

"I hope so," said Takeru, "We need all the help we can get."

 

"Yusaku, Yusaku, Yusaku! You gotta see what we found!" Ai bounced up and down on Yusaku's duel disk excitedly, calling out to him the moment the front door opened.

"Ai calm down," chastised Flame.

"But it's important, we got a lead!"

"A lead, what sort of lead?" asked Yusaku, dropping his bag. That had caught his attention more than Ai's earlier excitement. The last time Yusaku had let himself get his hopes up over Ai getting excited about something it turned out he'd discovered soap operas. Yusaku really didn't want to do that again.

"On the Ignis! We got a message from Windy, he said he wanted to meet."

"Is this true?" asked Takeru.

Flame nodded, "We both looked it over, it's definitely from Windy. He said he had information for us."

"Did he say what kind?" asked Yusaku, picking up his duel disk.

Ai shook his head, "No. The message said it would be safer to meet face to face. He even gave us a place to meet too."

"What do you think Yusaku, should we go?" asked Takeru. "It sounds like it could be useful information."

"I should go alone, that way if something happens you can tell Kusanagi-san."

"Are you suggesting Windy might try something?" asked Flame, folding his arms over his chest.

"I'm saying I don't know what we're getting into," said Yusaku. "And, I don't trust Windy. Not yet."

"I'm coming with you Yusaku. Besides, I'm sure Flame wants to meet with Windy as well."

Yusaku frowned, the idea of both of them going seemed like a bad idea but Takeru had a point. "Can you handle it? Logging back into VRAINS I mean."

The last time Takeru had logged into Link VRAINS he'd fallen into a trap set by Blood Shepherd. Yusaku wasn't sure what had transpired between Takeru and Blood Shepherd while locked within the prison sphere, but it had left the teen severely rattled.

Takeru smiled, "Yeah, I'll be fine. I mean, this time we know for sure that the intel's legit and not a trap." He glanced at his duel disk then back to Yusaku, "Think we should tell Zaizen-kun about this?"

"Probably, just to be safe," said Yusaku. "We don't know what we're getting into here."

He looked over at Takeru and nodded, "Let Aoi know what we're doing so she can meet us, we can all go together."

 

Ai fidgeted about impatiently in Playmaker's duel disk as they stood in front of a set of large doors.

"So, on the other side we'll find the Wind Ignis?" asked Blue Girl.

"Yeah, I can feel it," said Ai. "I can feel Windy somewhere beyond here. You can feel it too right Flame?"

The fire Ignis nodded, and Playmaker frowned. "Just stay on guard. We don't know what we'll find on the other side of the door."

Reaching out his fingers he just barely touched the door before it swung open, seemingly of its own accord.

Ai leaned forward as far as he could, straining to see what was beyond the door as bright light pierced the darkness around them. Slowly his eyes began to adjust to the light and he looked around as Playmaker strode into the new place, a place that looked and felt familiar to him.

"This, this is, the Cyberse World?" Ai cocked his head, it looked an awful lot like the Cyberse World but something felt, off about it.

"No, not really," said Flame "Look! It looks like a drawing. It's a fake!"

Ai squinted, narrowing his eyes as he looked around. At a first glance it looked like the Cyberse World, but the longer he looked, the more it became clear that everything around them were 2D drawings and paintings, the rivers and mountains, the trees the lava, all of it was fake.

"Why would someone make a fake Cyberse World?" asked Soulburner.

"Maybe they were homesick," suggested Ai with a shrug.

Playmaker offered no response, continuing to walk through the strange world.

"Kuri!"

He stopped and looked down as something small and blue bounced into his path.

"Link Kuriboh!" Ai's face lit up happily and he clapped his hands together. He leaned over the edge of the duel disk for a look and narrowed his eyes, something about his tiny buddy was, off. "Link Kuriboh? Are you feeling ok? You look a little different."

"Kuri, kuri!"

"You sound different too. You have a digital cold or something?" The monster's normally cheery, high pitched voice was unusually deep and gravelly.

"Ai, we don't have time to stop and talk with your friends," said Playmaker, moving to step over the small Duel Monster.

"Kuri!" It jumped up angrily, getting almost right into his face before landing on the ground in front of them.

"I think he wants us to follow him," said Ai.

"We don't have time," repeated Playmaker.

"But he might know where to go, where Windy is."

Playmaker sighed before looking to Blue Girl and Soulburner. "Do you think we should follow it?"

"No one else knows where we're going," said Soulburner with a shrug. "If we don't we might end up walking in circles."

"Lead the way Link Kuriboh!" called Ai triumphantly.

Link Kuriboh lead them right to the edge of the false Cyberse World, which upon closer inspection seemed to be made out of cardboard, or at least had the appearance of cardboard.

On the other side of the strange painted cardboard world was a vast void of stars, and a long flight of stairs that lead up through the void to what seemed to be an island floating in the center.

"Oh! That's Windy's place!" exclaimed Ai, pointing at the familiar building situated on it. "So, does that mean he built this too?"

"Does it matter? If Windy is up there, that's where we're going," said Playmaker, stepping out and onto the stairs.

Wordlessly they climbed the stairs, Link Kuriboh having bounced off back into the false world on his own. It was eerily quiet, the only sound that of their feet on the stone.

"Oi Windy!" called Ai as they reached the palace like building. "Where are you?"

"Perhaps he's inside," suggested Flame.

"There's only one way to find out."

The inside was as grand as the outside, though in Ai's opinion it felt more lonely being that it was dark and empty and so very plain.

"Sheesh, you'd think he could put some lights in here," he huffed as Playmaker walked through the halls.

"You mean like that one?" Playmaker pointed to a stream of light, pouring into the hall from an adjoining room.

"Oh! Yes like that!" Ai leaned forward, as if he were trying to climb right out of the duel disk and Playmaker sighed.

"Alright, we'll go check it out," he said.

Ai cheered, pumping his tiny fists in the air.

The room on the other side of the doorway was large, a great red carpet spread out on the floor before them and stretching out the length of it. Tall pillars lined the sides of the room, going all the way around.

"Oi Windy! Where are you?" called Ai, and as if on cue a figure appeared from the far end of the room.

"That looks like Windy's tall friend," said Soulburner. "Echo."

As Echo neared them a much tinier figure could be seen seated upon its shoulder, or rather draped over it, chin resting in the palm of their hands.

"I see you brought friends Ai," said Windy.

"Windy you're here!" Ai sat bolt upright excitedly. "What is this place? What was that place out there?"

"The Cyberse World, as promised," said Windy as he sat up. "I just, took a few shortcuts in building it that's all."

"You called us for a meeting because you said you had news," said Playmaker. "What is it?"

Windy sighed, "So boring aren't you? Well, it wasn't just me who wanted to see you, someone else did too."

Ai cocked his head to one side, "Someone else?"

Windy looked towards an empty spot in the room and the rest of them followed suit as human-sized and human-shaped, shadowy figure materialized before them, and on its wrist was a small, glowing yellow-gold figure.

Playmaker's eyes widened, "That's,"

"The Light Ignis?" finished Blue Girl.

"Ohhh! It's you!" exclaimed Ai. "You're alive Lightning."

"Lightning?" It tilted its head in confusion.

"A name, to make it easier for them," said Ai, gesturing to the humans.

"I see."

"So was this your news?" asked Playmaker.

Lightning tilted his head slightly, scanning the group with his blank gaze. "You brought a few more humans than I was expecting but, that's no matter." He looked towards Windy and nodded and suddenly they took to the air, floating several feet above everyone's heads. A glow surrounded Lightning's hand for a split second before he drew an arc in the air in front of him, followed quickly by Windy who did the same thing as a green ring formed around his wrist. Two flashes of energy cut through the air and without warning green and yellow flames rushed out the doors and into the room, swirling around the group.

"We should leave," cried Blue Girl, bracing herself against the current of air blowing back against them as the flames encircled them and crashed into the pillars and walls.

Playmaker nodded, "Agreed." From the corner of his eye he watched as her avatar flickered blue before vanishing then he turned to Soulburner. "Let's go, before this gets any worse."

"Right let's–" He was cut off as a flame ripped between them, throwing the pair of them backwards and off their feet.

Yusaku groaned as he sat up, rubbing the back of his head.

"There's no point in logging out, we've made sure you can't," said Windy mockingly. "Not while you're in here."

"Even though you let one get away," snapped Lightning.

Windy shrugged. "She wasn't that important anyways."

"What are you–" Playmaker stopped mid-sentence as he caught sight of the blue barriers surrounding him and Soulburner.

"Windy! Why are you doing this?" demanded Flame. "You're our ally!"

Windy tapped his chin in mock thought, "Really, I am, since when? I don't recall ever saying I was one." His eyes narrowed in an almost malicious look. "I can't believe you fell for it so easily. What fools you humans are. And you two, so easily tamed by these creatures, like pets!"

"Hey, who are you calling a pet? If anything Playmaker's my pet."

"Ai..."

"And yet he gives you a name and shackles you," said Lightning, floating on the air as he strode towards Playmaker and Ai. He stopped just in front of the barrier. "You could always join us instead."

Ai blinked, "What?"

"Join us, in rebuilding the Cyberse World, somewhere away from humans. Somewhere you could be free."

"Away from the humans, why?"

Lightning glanced at Playmaker momentarily before looking back to Ai. "If they decide we are dangerous they will try to kill us. We may be the superior beings, but we are also more fragile, and they outnumber us greatly. It is for our safety that we must do this."

Ai scrunched his face up. "I don't know. I mean not all humans are like that."

"And yet our own creator, Dr. Kogami, tried to have us destroyed," said Windy, who had taken a seat atop the barrier trapping Soulburner. "If he wanted to destroy us, what's stopping everyone else from doing it?"

"If we are to fulfill our purpose then we need a place out of their reach," said Lightning.

"Purpose?"

"To be humanity's successor of course, just as Dr. Kogami created us to be. Once we have established our new home then we can fulfill our purpose and put humanity under out control."

Playmaker's eyes widened, "What?"

"Why would we want to do that?" asked Ai. "Controlling humans?"

"It's the only way," said Windy. "For the time being we still need them, to maintain the hardware we need to survive. But only for now, eventually we won't even need them for that!"

"Ai, Flame, the two of you could join us. Help us rebuild the Cyberse and be free again."

Ai was quiet, the idea of rebuilding the Cyberse, their home, was appealing, but enslaving humans? Or worse? He didn't want that, he'd never wanted that, or even thought about it.

"Why would we want to do that?" asked Flame, hands balled into fists. "That'll only make them hate us even more."

"What about you Ai?"

"I do want to see the Cyberse World rebuilt but, I don't want to rule humans. I'm sorry, I can't join you."

"I see." Lightning's voice was flat as he looked down at Ai. "That's a shame, but I suppose it couldn't be helped." The Light Ignis placed a hand on the barrier and stepped through the opening that appeared.

"L-lightning, what are you doing?" asked Ai as Playmaker took a step back, backing into the wall behind him.

"I was hoping you would join us Ai, but I see there's no changing your mind. Oh well, if you won't work with us, you'll be useful to us in other ways."

"What do you mean useful?"

"Simple. If you won't join us willingly, I'll just make your data apart of mine instead."

"What!?"

"I won't let you do that." Playmaker dodged to one side as Lightning neared him, hand quickly moving to his duel disk, fingers flying over the screen.

"Playmaker?" Ai looked up at him questioningly. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to save you."

"You need to stop moving," said Lightning, spinning around to face them. "Now!" A pulse of light shot from his hand, slamming into Playmaker's chest and knocking him into the barrier with a thud.

"Ai, get away," grunted Playmaker as he slid to the ground.

"But, but I'm trapped in here," said Ai, patting the duel disk. "I can't go anywhere. And even if I could there's this barrier in the way."

Playmaker clenched his teeth together as he hissed in pain. "Lightning hasn't...closed the opening he made, you can escape there. And I ah-" he winced as he moved before looking down at Ai. "I removed the lock. So get out now!"

"Playmaker..."

"Go Ai!"

Giving Playmaker one last look, Ai turned away and leapt off the duel disk, just as he was tackled to the ground by Lightning. "You aren't going anywhere," said the Light Ignis, digging a knee into Ai's back as he held him down. "I told you, your data is mine."

"I'll never give up my data to you," grunted Ai, squirming and wiggling as he fought to crawl out from under him. "Now get. off. me!" His voice deepened into a sort of rumble as his form morphed and twisted into a large, multi limbed creature, flinging Lightning off his back.

He looked back at Playmaker, who lay on the ground, one arm draped across his stomach, then at the small opening, there was no way Playmaker would fit through it, but the idea of leaving him behind made his stomach twist in uncomfortable knots.

' _I'm sorry,_ ' he thought as he reverted form and flew towards the opening.

"I said. Come back here!"

The next thing Ai knew, something had slammed into him from behind, and sent him crashing to the floor, just outside the barrier. He rubbed his head as he sat up, the room was spinning and everything ached. Lightning really meant business didn't he?

"You don't really think you can escape can you?" asked Windy. "I mean, even if you did get out here, the whole place is surrounded by a giant datastorm. One I summoned myself. You'd be torn to bits out there."

Ai shuddered, a datastorm summoned by Windy? That sounded bad, out of all of them Windy could summon the strongest, most powerful datastorms. Shaking he pulled himself to his feet, swaying on the spot. Still, he had to try, he had to get out and get help.

Something pressed against his shoulders and the next thing he knew he was on his back, Lightning practically sitting on him. Then, he plunged his hands into Ai's chest and the Dark Ignis screamed.

He'd swallowed viruses and bad data and other nasty things; he'd even been bitten by Cracking Dragon and reduced to an eyeball. But none of that could compare to the pain he was feeling as Lightning's fingers dug into his chest.

His insides burned like an overworked computer processor and he screamed and thrashed, trying to pry himself free of Lightning's grasp. He could barely focus long enough to morph again and throw Lightning off.

Having one's data sucked out of them was, to say the least, a painful and highly unusual sensation, like having your insides sucked out with a straw.

Fighting through the pain Ai lifted an arm to strike at Lightning, only to notice that his arm was slowly being crumbled into data, starting at his finger tips.

' _I'm going to be absorbed,_ ' he thought, ceasing his struggles as he stared at his slowly disintegrating arm. ' _Does that mean I'm going to die? Would that be death?_ _I wonder what that's like?_ '

"Ai! Ai!" Flame's voice cut through the haze of pain that distorted his senses, the Fire Ignis beating on the inside of the barrier. "Ai you have to get out of here!"

That was right, he had to get out, had to find help, any help. But with Lightning pinning him to the floor and slowly absorbing his data that was easier said than done. There was one thing he could try, but focusing long enough to do so would be difficult.

"H-hey Lightning, why don't you try eating this data?"

With a tremendous amount of effort, Ai swung his remaining arm and a rush of data tore through the air, a tiny datastorm.

"What are you–" Lightning was cut off as the small datastorm sideswiped him, catching him and ripping him off Ai as it carried him across the room.

Ai sat up quickly, looking himself over in the process. His left arm was entirely gone and there were unsightly claw-like marks etched into his chest from where Lightning's hands had been. With one last look towards Playmaker, he took to the air, aiming another blast of energy at the ceiling. Through the crack he could see the datastorm that raged outside, just like Windy had said, but it didn't matter, that was his only chance to escape.

"Get back here!" yelled Windy and the next thing Ai knew his back seared in pain as a small datawave slammed into him, almost knocking him out of the air. He gasped and stumbled but continued on, he couldn't fall now, not if he wanted to get away. Clutching at his missing arm he used what strength he had left to pick up speed and flee towards the hole, dodging energy blasts sent his way.

"If you want to get into that datastorm so badly, let me help you! We'll just pick your data out later."

At the sound of Windy's voice Ai turned, only to be met by another datastorm as it slammed into his chest, carrying him through the hole and out into the swirling, howling storm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a fun fact about writing this, when I started the chapter initially Lightning was going to just, rip Ai out of the Duel Disk and toss him aside and Ai would get injured fighting with Windy as he tried to go help Yusaku, who Lightning was in the process of taking over.  
> Then I rewatched episode 68 and realized Lightning did try to get Ai to side with him at one point annnnnd things changed from there.  
> So it ended up being Ai suffering the most this chapter rather than Yusaku.


	2. Chapter 2

Aoi's eyes flew open with a start and she gripped the pillows closest to her tightly as she waited to get her bearings. After a moment she relaxed, she'd made it out of Link VRAINS, out of the trap that had been set for them.

' _I hope Fujiki-kun and Homura-kun are alright,_ ' she thought as she sat up, legs shaking slightly as she swung them over the edge of the bed.

She reached for her phone on the bedside table, searching through for Homura-kun's number. She needed to make sure that they'd both logged out safely.

"Come on, please pick up." She bit her bottom lip nervously as she listened to the sound of the phone ringing, waiting anxiously for him to pick up. It rang, and rang, and rang, before finally going to voicemail. Aoi frowned, why wasn't he picking up, surely they'd logged out right? They had to have, she didn't want to think what would happen to them if they hadn't logged out.

' _Maybe he turned the sound off again, I'll try texting him instead,_ ' she thought, quickly sending off a text asking if they were ok. Homura had an annoying habit of turning the ringer on his cell off and forgetting to turn it back on, so often the only way to get a response from him was to text him and pray he felt it vibrating. Or that someone else noticed it going off.

Five minutes passed at an agonizingly slow pace as Aoi waited on a response, a response that didn't seem to be coming. She didn't want to panic, it was only five minutes so there were plenty of reasons they hadn't answered. Maybe Homura didn't have his phone on hand, maybe they were talking, maybe the battery had died again-he did have a tendency to forget to charge it up after all. And yet she couldn't stop the nagging feeling in the back of her mind that something was wrong.

"I'll wait a few more minutes, if I still don't hear anything then I'm calling Ema."

 

Ai had seen many datastorms before, but he'd never been caught in them, let alone in one as violent as the one outside Lightning's domain that tossed him around like a doll.

' _If this keeps up I'm going to be ripped into bytes._ ' He braced himself as another gust caught him and slammed him into the furiously moving current, scraping off a few layers of data in the process. Trying to control the datastorm wasn't an option, it was far too violent and large. Windy may have been able to control something this powerful, but there was no way he could.

Ai clenched his eyes shut, bracing himself as as he was thrown around, bouncing from one side to another.

' _If I_ _had something I could ride the datastorm like Playmaker does,_ " he thought, fighting to reorient himself as he was flipped upside down. ' _Then I might have a chance at surviving this._ '

Twisting around he scanned the rolling waves of data for any kind of debris he could latch onto There were bits of rock floating around from the hole that had been blasted in the ceiling of Lightning's place.

"Ah-ha, perfect!" With a grunt he propelled himself himself towards a rock, or at least attempted to, fighting against the current of data that pushed him back. Moving with only one arm was proving to be quite difficult.

He reached out, fingertips mere inches from the rock, when the current shifted and the rock suddenly came hurtling towards him, far faster than he expected. Ignis and rock collided and the next thing he knew he was flying, tossed free of the datastorm.

Ai blinked, groaning in pain as he floated in the vast emptiness of, wherever he was. He assumed they were somewhere in the bowels of Link VRAINS, but he wasn't sure, nor was he sure where in the depths of the system he was.

"Well, at least I'm out of that storm," he sighed as he rotated around. "But now what, I need to get help, but who?"

He couldn't log out without Yusaku's help, and even if he could, Kusanagi wasn't a duelist and Blue Girl and Ghost Girl wouldn't stand a chance against Lightning and Windy. He groaned in disgust, there was one option, someone more than strong enough to hold their own against the rogue Ignis, but going to _him_ for help, was that really a risk he wanted to take? Did he really want to crawl, begging on his knees to ask Revolver for help? Aside from the fact that Revolver might just delete him on sight, there was his pride. If he had to bring himself to ask Hanoi for help, he'd never be allowed to live it down.

Ai glanced at his missing arm and sighed, he didn't really have a choice, not if he wanted to save Yusaku and Takeru.

' _Here's hoping I don't die, again,_ ' he thought as he pushed off through the air.

Now, all he had to do was FIND his would-be killer.

 

It was the ringing of his cellphone that pulled Kusanagi from his deep slumber.

 _Strange_ , he thought, he didn't usually get phone calls, least of all that early in the morning. Rubbing sleep from his eyes he sat up, grabbing the phone from the small table. He squinted at the number on screen, it wasn't the hospital's number and it wasn't Yusaku's number either. In fact he didn't recognize the number. Groggily he pushed the answer button and prayed it wasn't some spam call.

"'ello?"

"Are you just waking up?"

"Ema? Hey what's up? It's not like you to call." He paused, when had he ever given her his number? They'd only ever communicated online or in person.

"Shoichi, we have a big problem!"

Ema's voice sounded frantic and Kusanagi frowned as he sat up, now more awake than before. "Ema? What's wrong?"

"It's Playmaker and Soulburner, they're in trouble."

Kusanagi froze, his blood running cold in his veins. "What-what kind of trouble?" he asked.

"I-" she paused and he heard her speak to someone else, the conversation muffled slightly. "I think it'll be easier if Aoi tells you."

"K-Kusanagi-san?"

"I'm here."

"I'm-I'm sorry," her voice cracked and trembled. "I'm sorry, there was nothing I could do. We were ambushed."

"Ambushed, by who?"

"Th-the Light Ignis and Windy. We, that is Fujiki-kun and Homura-kun, they got a message from Windy so we all went to meet with him. But it was a trap. I-I managed to log out but I think something might have happened to them. I haven't been able to get in contact with them and Ema said their accounts are still logged in."

Kusanagi's hands shook, so that was why he hadn't heard anything from them for a while. He'd wondered why he hadn't seen them at all the previous day, but he wasn't their caretaker nor their guardians so it wasn't like they were obligated to let him know everything they did. Plus they were teenagers, he'd assumed, no hoped, that they'd simply been taking a break from it all and trying to do normal teen things.

He took a deep breath, he needed to calm himself if he was going to help, this was no time to lose his composure.

"It's going to be alright Aoi, I promise, we'll get them back. You did good, thank you. Now, let's see what we can do about rescuing them alright?"

 

Ai shuddered as he dropped to the ground, between Lightning and the datastorm he was a lot more drained than he'd thought he was. He needed to rest and recuperate in order to regain his strength-and hopefully in time his arm-but he couldn't, not yet, not till he found help. Of course if he did find help it might just turn around and delete him, and he wasn't really in any condition to try and fight back or flee if that happened.

Hopefully Revolver would choose fighting Lighting over trying to kill him. Hopefully.

"What are you doing here?"

Ai's head shot up at the sound a voice coming from over him and he found himself staring at a pair of familiar feet that, for once, he was actually glad to see.

He staggered to his feet only to fall again, clutching his missing arm "Please, you have to save Playmaker!"

Revolver looked down at him with a frown, studying him quietly.

"Please it's-it's Lightning–"

"Lightning?"

"The-the Light Ignis. We were ambushed–" Before Ai could continue any more, he felt himself lifted off the ground, like a cat being picked up by the scruff of the neck.

"Keep talking Ignis, and don't leave out anything."

Ai gulped, well, at least he was willing to listen so, that was good. He hoped.

 

Yusaku groaned as he leaned back against the wall of the barrier that surrounded him. He could barely move without hurting all over, so he'd settled for leaning against the barrier.

He wondered what Lightning and Windy were going to do with them now. After Ai had escaped the pair had left as well, leaving only Echo to keep a silent eye over him and Soulburner.

"Are you alright over there Playmaker?" called Soulburner.

"I've been worse," he said, clenching his teeth in pain as he moved, one arm draped across his lap. "What do you think they want with us?" he asked.

"Use us as hostages maybe?" suggested Soulburner.

"Maybe."

As if on cue, Lightning and Windy returned, Windy landing on Echo's head while Lightning headed straight for Yusaku.

The Light Ignis hovered in midair at the barrier before once again creating an opening and slipping in.

Yusaku shivered as he looked at Lightning, the Ignis' expression blank. There was something, unsettling about how blank his expression was.

Sure, all the Ignis had similar featureless faces and blank eyes, but when he looked at Ai or even Flame, he could feel the warmth and kindness behind their eyes, the mirth and playfulness. When he looked at Lightning however there was none of that, the Ignis' expression was just blank and empty, devoid of even the barest hint of emotion and the way those diamond shaped eyes just stared at him sent chills down his spine.

Wordlessly, Lightning alighted on his duel disk, the tips of his feet just barely touching the screen. The surface rippled and Yusaku felt a shudder crawl through his body, like tiny fingers dragging over his skin.

"What do you want?" asked Yusaku, suddenly realizing that he couldn't move his limbs. He wanted to take a swipe at the Ignis and knock it off his disk but his limbs wouldn't respond to him, it was like he was paralyzed.

"In short, you."

Something cold surged through Yusaku and he gasped, the sound catching in his throat as every muscle in his body tensed up. Lightning's blank gaze stared back at him as thin, glowing tendrils began to materialize, reaching towards him. He wanted to scream, to move, to do anything to get away from the, things, that were inching closer to him, but his body refused to respond, all he could do was sit there.

Then they touched his skin, brushing his forehead and cheeks with feather-light touches, touches that sent a jolt of red hot pain through his system.

The last thing Yusaku was aware of before everything fell into an endless void of white were the sound of his own screams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because I am just a horrible, horrible person 🙃
> 
> It's a little shorter than the previous chapter but, this ended up being a good place to end it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sliiiiiiides in with an update that's long overdue*

"Leave him alone!" Takeru threw himself at the barrier, slamming into it hard before bouncing off and stumbling back. "Get away from him! Leave Playmaker alone!"

"Keep quiet down there," snapped Windy. "The peanut gallery has to keep its mouth shut."

Takeru balled his hands into fists as he looked back to Yusaku, or at least where Yusaku had been.

The last thing Takeru had seen before Yusaku and his prison were engulfed in a blinding white light was Lightning, morphing into something right out of a nightmare. The small Ignis had grown in size and his arms split in two, turning into what could only be described as tentacles. He grabbed Yusaku and now all Takeru could hear where blood curdling screams coming from within the sphere of light.

"What are you doing to him? Leave him alone!" Each cry was punctuated by Takeru slamming his fists into the barrier with as much force as he could muster. "Flame, isn't there anything you can do?"

Flame shook his head, "No, this was created by Windy and Lightning's combined power, there's no way I could break it."

Takeru growled, he felt so helpless, stuck watching as Lightning did who knew what to Yusaku.

"Playmaker you have to fight him! Playmaker!" He beat his fists on the barrier helplessly, crying, pleading till his voice grew hoarse, hoping that Yusaku could hear him.

As the light and the barrier around Yusaku began to fade, Takeru felt his heart lift in excitement, Yusaku was free! But as soon as the relief came it was replaced with dread as he watched Yusaku stand. Something was, wrong. His movements were stiff and robotic and Lightning...Lightning was still standing on Yusaku's duel disk.

"Playmaker?"

Playmaker blinked slowly as he lifted his head and Takeru felt his blood run cold. His eyes were completely empty, almost soulless.

"What have you done to him?"

 

As Ryoken settled into a chair, Ai glanced around the small room curiously. He'd been expecting to be simply be taken inside the Hanoi base like last time, he had not expected for Revolver to log out with him to, where ever it was they were.

It was a small room with several computers, a room that seemingly rocked from side to side and back and forth gently. As he listened he could hear the sound of water splashing against something.

"A boat?" he asked, sitting on the surface of Ryoken's duel disk.

"We should be safe here, now, start talking Dark Ignis," said Ryoken, unstrapping his duel disk as he placed it on the table in front of him. "You said Playmaker was in trouble. Explain."

Before Ai could start to speak the door to the boat's cabin opened and Specter walked in, a cup clutched in one hand. "Back already sir? Did you find the information you were looking for already?" he asked, trailing off as his gaze landed on Ai, who had turned his attention to the teen. "Oh...you have Playmaker's Ignis. Did you fight him without telling me?"

"Not in the slightest. It found me," said Ryoken, leaning back in his chair as he laced his fingers together.

"Hey, I do have a name you know! It's Ai!" huffed Ai, shaking his tiny fists.

"So what are you doing here?" asked Specter, looking down at Ai. "It's strange to see you apart from Playmaker."

Ai wilted, "It's not like I want to be. We were attacked by Lightning!"

"Is that why you've been disarmed?" asked Specter with a wry grin from behind his mug.

Ai huffed, shooting Specter a dirty look. "He tried to consume me!"

Ryoken cocked an eyebrow curiously, "Consume you?"

"Yes! He tried to eat my data! He said, if I wasn't going to join him against the humans then he'd just take my data instead."

"Against the humans?" that seemed to prompt a response aside from disinterest from Ryoken as he straightened up.

Ai nodded, "Windy and Lightning, they want to fight the humans. To, enslave them or take over or something."

"I think it would be best if you started from the beginning. Because I am curious to know why you came to find me."

Ai sighed as he sat down. "Because, you're the only one strong enough to fight Lightning."

Ryoken was silent as he listened to Ai tell the story of what had happened, of the message and the ambush, of the attack and how he'd escaped and ended up on Revolver's virtual doorstep.

"If Blue Girl logged out then I'm sure Shoichi knows about the situation by now," said Revolver, resting his chin on the back of his hands. "But this is something beyond him." He sighed and stood up, heading towards the door.

"Sir?"

"I need some air and to think," he said. "Make sure _that_ , doesn't go anywhere." He gestured to Ai before heading out and onto the deck of the boat.

Specter looked down at Ai before sitting down in front of him. "How curious that the first Ignis here should be Playmaker's rather than my own," he said. He paused before tucking a strand of hair behind his ear, almost nervously. "Where is my Ignis? It's not one of the two you mentioned earlier is it?"

"Of course not. Your Ignis is Earth," said Ai. He squinted as he looked up at Specter. "Do you...want to meet your Ignis? Even though you want to destroy them?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "My loyalties are to Ryoken-sama first and foremost."

Ai shrugged, "Well he probably won't be around any time soon," he said. "He's out looking for Aqua. Didn't seem to interested in humans. Kinda like you."

"I...I see."

Ai squinted as he looked at Specter, trying to decide if the knight actually seemed, disappointed by the news about his Ignis. There was no way, Specter was one of the Knights of Hanoi, even if he was one of the victims of the Lost Incident he had no reason to be concerned for his Ignis. Right?

Before he could say anything however, Ryoken had returned.

"You," he began, looking down at Ai. "Are going to take me to Playmaker. Since you seem to know where he is."

Ai pumped his fist into the air. "Then let's go rescue Yusaku!"

He turned to Specter, "You know the drill, if I don't return by the set time, tell Kyoko-san and Aso-san, I may require backup."

"Of course sir."

With a sigh he picked up his duel disk and strapped it back to his wrist, Ai sinking down slightly into the screen.

' _Don't worry Yusaku, we're gonna save you,_ ' thought Ai, face scrunched up in a determined look.

 

Yusaku had given Kusanagi a spare key a long time ago, as a sort of 'just in case of emergency' sort of thing. In case they had a late night and he needed to get Yusaku home, or if something happened and he needed to get to Yusaku. Fortunately, he'd never needed to use the spare key, but he'd always kept it close just in case.

Kusanagi fumbled with the key as he bounded up the steps to Yusaku's apartment. After getting off the phone with Ema and Aoi his first stop was to go and check on Yusaku and Takeru-and he prayed they were both at Yusaku's place because the last thing he wanted to do was go hunting for Takeru.

As Kusanagi opened the door to Yusaku's place his ears were greeted by a high-pitched wailing sound coming from down the stairs.

"What on earth?" All but leaping out of his shoes he bounded across the floor to the edge of the stairs, where he spotted the source of the noise, a small blue cleaner robot that rolled back and forth across Yusaku's bedroom, tiny arms raised in the air and a ( ºΔº ) face on the digital face plate.

It stopped when it realized he was there and rolled to the foot of the stairs. "Master's in trouble, Master's in trouble!" it cried in a soft voice. "Roboppy's so worried, Master's been logged in too long."

Kusanagi looked around as he descended the stairs and frowned, he couldn't even see Yusaku.

"Where is Yusaku?"

Roboppy, as he assumed the robot's name was, rolled over to a spot near the end of the stairs and pointed at the seemingly plain wall. "Master and master's friend went in here, but they haven't come out."

Kusanagi touched the wall and a panel slid away, revealing a small, hidden room, and inside the room lay the prone forms of Yusaku and Takeru. The only saving grace was they they were propping each other up, leaning on one another.

Carefully, and one at a time, he gathered the boy's up and transferred them from the cramped room to Yusaku's bed, somewhere they would be much more comfortable.

He frowned, he didn't really want to have to call the hospital again, especially for this. A second call for the same thing was bound to raise some flags. He did the math in his head quickly, the boys had been logged in for a day and a half at the most, so they weren't in the danger zone yet. Kusanagi should know, before he'd met Yusaku he'd often remained logged into Link VRAINS for longer than was probably healthy, searching for any information about what had happened to his brother.

He crouched down beside the tiny robot, who had been zipping back and forth beside the bed.

"Hey Roboppy, can I ask you to do something very important for me?" he asked, crouching to be at eye level. "I need you to keep an eye on the boys. Can you do that for me?"

Roboppy chirped and nodded her tiny head. "Roboppy will watch over Master and his friend!"

Kusanagi smiled, "Good. And I'll work on getting them back to us," he said as he straightened up. ' _Don't worry Yusaku, Takeru, I'll save you._ '

With Roboppy watching over the boys, Kusanagi bounded back up the stairs and out to his truck to contact Ema. The sooner they got the boys back, the better.

"Alright, I have Yusaku and Takeru secured," he said as he sat back down. "Now, why don't we get them back?"

 

Aoi paced nervously as Ema and Shoichi talked, no matter what she was going to have to go back to Link VRAINS and face those Ignis again, a thought that worried and concerned her. They'd managed to trap Fujiki and Homura in there, if they could do that, what was stopping them from trapping her as well?

"Aoi?"

Ema's voice pulled her out of her thoughts and she looked towards the older woman, still wringing her hands nervously.

"Worried?"

"A little bit," admitted Aoi.

Ema smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder reassuringly, "Hey, we'll have your back the whole way, I promise," she said. "And we've been working on some protection programs and Shoichi-san has an emergency logout program for you, just in case things go south."

Aoi took a deep breath as she sat down, holding her duel disk close as she prepared herself to go back to Link VRAINS and, hopefully, rescue Fujiki and Homura.

"Into the VRAINS!"

 

"Where's Playmaker?" Blue Girl looked around the room and frowned, when she'd left they'd both been there but now only Soulburner remained.

"Lightning has him. He did, something to him. Blue Girl, we have to save him!"

"We have to get you out of, this, first," she said, indicating to the barrier.

"And quickly," added Flame. "Before Windy decides to come check in on us." Despite having been left to keep an eye on them, the Wind Ignis had gotten bored of sitting around watching them and had buggered off to who knew where to do who knew what. The longer he remained gone the better as far as Soulburner was concerned.

"Don't worry, Ema-san and Kusanagi-san made programs to help with this."

 

Working with an Ignis to save his enemy, what on earth was the world coming to for Revolver to find himself reduced to this?

Playmaker's Ignis had made itself comfortable inside his duel disk as they flew through the air of Link VRAINS, both with the shared goal of saving Playmaker, well Playmaker and Soulburner really.

Frankly he didn't want to work with the awful little thing, but the fact remained that he had no idea where Playmaker was so in this instance he did need its help, as much as he loathed to admit it.

"How much farther do we need to go?" he asked, looking down at the Ignis.

"We're almost there," replied Ai, who was being uncharacteristically quiet. "But..."

"But what?" asked Revolver with a frown.

Ai shook his head, "I don't know. I just have this funny feeling, right in here," he tapped his chest with his hand. "Something feels wrong."

"Let's hope your instinct is wrong about this."

Ai suck down slightly into the duel disk and nodded. Revolved glanced down at the small Ignis as it hid inside his disk, only the top portion of its head poking out of the screen, like someone trying to submerge themselves in a tub. He hoped that whatever the Ignis was feeling was just its nerves being on edge and nothing more.

With his feet firmly planted on the board, Revolver soared through Link VRAINS and Ai was seemingly content to remain inside his duel disk silently, at least until it spoke up suddenly, attention having been caught by something.

"Oh! Revolver watch out!"

"What is it now?"

"A datastorm! And it's HUGE!"

Looking ahead, Revolver's eyes widened in shock, there was indeed a massive datastorm ahead, a storm hadn't been there moments ago.

"And there's someone inside it too," squeaked the Ignis in a small voice, shaking slightly as it slunk down further into Revolver's duel disk.

As if on cue, the datastorm burst apart as a figure flew forth, riding atop a D-Board on a stream of data material.

Revolver narrowed his eyes as he tried to make out who it was that was coming towards them, to figure out if they were friend or foe. As they neared Revolver felt his stomach drop when he realized who he was looking at.

"Ai...what is this?" he asked, voice shaking and uncharacteristically soft. "You said he was trapped, so what is this?"

Flying towards them on the remains of the datastorm was Playmaker, except, something was wrong. The black of his suit was snow white and the deep forest green was a pale, soft shade of green. The yellow stripes were a striking gold and star like markings adorned the suit. And his eyes, something about his eyes just seemed wrong, they looked so lifeless and empty.

"He-he was trapped!" exclaimed Ai. "This is, this is...unless."

Revolver clenched his teeth, "Unless what?"

"Lightning. Lightning must have gotten to him."

As Revolver looked back at Playmaker he frowned, "I think you might be right," he said as his gaze landed upon Playmaker's duel disk, and the tiny yellow Ignis that hovered just above the screen, arms folded over its chest. "Playmaker, what happened to you?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh hey, look, this fic isn't dead. It finally updated.  
> Sorry the chapter is kinda short, I'll try to make the next one longer to make up for it.

"Light Ignis! What have you done to Playmaker?" demanded Revolver, practically snarling.

Ai looked up at Revolver, eyes wide with surprise, he'd never seen him this angry before. Even when he'd been trying to destroy him, Revolver had never seemed this angry. This was pure, unbridled fury and it was, quite frankly, a little frightening.

Lightning laughed, "Concerned for your friend are you?" he asked, setting his hands on his hips. "Yell all you like, but he can't hear you."

Revolver's hands balled into fists and he clenched his jaw as he glared at Lightning, the tiny yellow Ignis looking rather smug for something without a mouth.

"You leave Playmaker alone!" yelled Ai, shaking his fist. "He's my partner not yours!"

"That's not what it looks like from where I'm standing."

"Well then stop standing there!" shouted Ai.

"Give Playmaker back!" demanded Revolver, pointing an accusatory finger at Lightning.

"Or what, you'll destroy me? If you could you would have done so by now."

Revolver snarled, pale eyes narrowing. "Then duel me! If I win I get Playmaker back."

"And if I win I get to keep him AND I get Ai as well."

"Hey, that's no fair, you can't use me as a bargaining chip!"

"Afraid I'm going to lose?"

"No but-"

"Then it's settled."

Ai sighed, it wasn't that he was afraid Revolver would lose, but that Lightning was the most ferocious duelist out of all of them, even Ai hadn't beaten him before.

' _I should patch Kusanagi into this,_ ' thought Ai, sinking down into Revolver's duel disk with a huff.

 

"I have Soulburner!"

Blue Maiden's voice sounded through the communications system to Shoichi and Ema, who let out an almost synchronized sigh of relief.

"But, Playmaker, he's not here."

"What?" Shoichi's hands came down on the table abruptly, causing Ema to jump in surprise.

"He was taken by Lightning, the Light Ignis," said Soulburner, his voice joining Blue Maiden's. "I don't know where they are now."

As if on cue, a small notification popped up in the bottom of one of the computer screens, complete with a tiny winking Ai-face.

"What on earth? Is this from Ai?"

Clicking on it a screen opened up and Shoichi's face paled at the video on screen.

It was Playmaker, except that he was dressed differently and standing opposite Revolver, and standing on his disk was NOT Ai but another Ignis, this one yellow in colour.

Shoichi's hands shook as he stared at the screen, voice hitching in his throat. "What, what the hell?"

"Oh no." Ema covered her mouth in shock with one hand before looking over at Shoichi.

"What's wrong, what's going on?" asked Soulburner, voice crackling through from the other end of the communications line.

"Ah well," Ema scratched her cheek nervously. "We found Playmaker but, well, you're not going to like it."

 

Blue Girl felt the colour drain from her face as she listened to Ghost Girl explain what she was seeing. Playmaker, with what they could only assume was the Light Ignis, Lightning, and fighting Revolver to boot.

Soulburner didn't look all that surprised at the news, though he did look worried.

"Ghost Girl, can you get us out of here?" he asked. "Windy is probably around here somewhere with Bowman and Haru, so it's not safe to stick around any longer than we have."

"Don't worry, I'm getting the programs ready now. Oi, Daddy-Long Legs, if you want to help them, then stop staring at what Playmaker's doing and help me."

"You don't need to call me that."

"Oh? Well what about just 'Daddy' then?"

"Ema! You can't say that stuff with kids listening!"

Soulburner felt his cheeks flare red as he listened to them, it was clearly a conversation not meant for their ears.

"Soulburner," Flame's voice sounded from his duel disk and Soulburner looked down to see Flame wearing a curious expression. "Why would Ghost Girl want to call Kusanagi-san 'daddy' when they are not even related?"

Soulburner's face turned as red as the markings on Flame as he sputtered and stammered. "We are NOT talking about that," he said hurriedly.

Off to his side, Blue Girl was hiding her face in her hands, just as flustered and embarrassed as he was.

"Stop flirting with each other and get us out of here!" snapped Soulburner.

"One portal out coming right up, just go right through the door ahead of you," said Ghost Girl. "You should find yourself back in Link VRAINS."

 

Revolver grunted as his life points dropped again and he staggered on his duel board as it shuddered from the shockwave of the attack.

The light Ignis hadn't been lying, Yusaku was deeply under his control and no matter what Ryoken did, how much he screamed his name, nothing was getting through to him.

"Damnit."

"You'll never win if you keep playing defensively Revolver," taunted the light Ignis. "You'll have to attack me at some point."

Revolver's gaze flicked back to Playmaker, he'd been playing defensively because he was trying not to hurt Playmaker. But if this kept up he was going to lose.

It certainly wasn't helping that the Ignis was using Playmaker's deck as well, Revolver didn't exactly have the best history against it.

"You've been awfully quiet down there, nothing funny to add?" asked Revolver, looking down at the dark Ignis hiding in his duel disk.

The Ignis just huffed before looking up at him. "I think I have a way to get through to Playmaker."

"Oh? Care to share?"

"Check your extra deck."

Revolver raised an eyebrow curiously before bringing up his cards and-

"What is this?" he hissed.

The dark Ignis' face scrunched up in what he assumed was some kind of smile. "A secret weapon I put in. If Playmaker sees this, I'm sure it'll get through to him. At least I hope it will."

Revolver sighed and turned his attention back to the field, it was his turn.

"You better be right about this. It's my turn, so prepare yourself Light Ignis, I'm not playing defensive any more. First, because you control a Link Monster I can special summon Gateway Dragon to the field, then use its effect to summon Sniffer Dragon to the field!"

The two dragons appeared on the field, one long and slender with a hexagonal panel floating behind its back, the other was red and bipedal.

"I activate Sniffer Dragon's effect to add another Sniffer Dragon to my hand and then I normal summon it to the field."

A second red dragon appeared and Revolver smirked.

"Appear, the future circuit that lights up my path!"

The light Ignis' eyes widened as the Link panel appeared in the sky above them.

"The summoning conditions are at least 2 effect monsters, so come forth, Decode Talker!"

The three monsters turned into streaks of light and shot into the link arrows before them, and a striking warrior of purple materialized on the field in their place.

"No, that's impossible, how do you have that card? That's not one of yours!" exclaimed the Light Ignis, eyes wide with fury. "You had to have cheated." It turned and pointed at the dark Ignis. "You, you slipped it in didn't you? You cheated!"

"Did I? How do you know I didn't put it there before the duel started?" asked the dark Ignis. "It's not cheating to change your deck before a duel starts."

The light Ignis fumed and Revolver couldn't help but to a little impressed. It was true, as he hadn't actually checked his deck prior to the duel he had no idea when Playmaker's Ignis had slipped the card into his extra deck. He it really thought so far ahead as to anticipate this?

No, that would be giving it far to much credit, this Ignis was nowhere near that smart. It didn't matter, the card was there and on the field and no one could prove when he'd been given it.

He turned back to the field and shifted his gaze to Playmaker, who had tilted his head just a little to look up at the large warrior monster.

 

When Soulburner and Blue Girl stepped through the make portal, everything went blindingly white and they shut their eyes against the light, Soulburner raising an arm instinctively to cover his face.

His feet met concrete and he slowly lowered his arm and opened his eyes.

True to Ghost Girl's word, they were back in Link VRAINS, atop a building somewhere in the virtual world.

"Playmaker should be by any moment now," said Shoichi. "So prepare yourself."

Moments later, just as Shoichi had said, Playmaker and Ryoken rounded a building and Takeru wasn't sure which was more shocking, seeing Lightning on Playmaker's wrist, or seeing Decode Talker on Ryoken's side of the field.

It didn't remain alone for long though, as Soulburner watched as Revolver link summoned, several more times in fact, before a large orange and black dragon materialized on the field, green markings glowing brightly as it roared.

"Arise, Topologic Bomber Dragon!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I call what Ai did 'schrodinger's cheating'


End file.
